How to Stay Confident When Your Interior Design Clients Are Wealthier Than You Are
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I’ve been working with interior designers for 8+ years, and before that, I owned a successful wedding and event planning business.
Over the years, I’ve had many conversations with designers who’ve told me things like, “I’d never be able to afford myself,” or “I could never spend that much on a custom sofa,” or “I wish I could spend $X on a renovation like my clients do.”
This resonates with me. As a former wedding planner, I was most often hired by the parents of the bride or groom. My clients (the parents who were hiring me) were significantly older and had far greater financial means than I did. (I was in my 20s and 30s and when I had my first company).
That gap can trigger feelings of inadequacy, or even imposter syndrome, where you experience self-doubt and low self-esteem despite your achievements and expertise. It’s easy to feel you can’t live up to your clients' expectations. And it’s a trap that’s easy to fall into.
So what happens when YOU’RE the service provider (the expert), and your client is older, wealthier, more successful, or is more accustomed to high-end, luxury experiences?
I’ll tell you: YOUR MONEY STORY COMES OUT.
You start thinking about your annual income, your mortgage, the bills you have due, and where you pinch pennies. You let those numbers define you, and then imposter syndrome rears its ugly head. You feel “less than.”
And that feeling seeps into your client interactions and business decisions. You find it hard to speak with authority. You feel intimidated by their socio-economic status.
This often leads to setting your prices too low, leaving money on the table, and losing sight of your established boundaries when it comes to process or scope.
But here’s the thing: sure, they may have more money, more success, more experience with $700/person dinners, $3,000/night resorts, or never having to worry about their luggage getting banged up because they don’t fly commercial. BUT YOU are still the expert when it comes to interior design.
So how do you make sure money, power struggles, and imposter syndrome don’t negatively impact your business or your confidence?
Why This Feels So Personal
Money has a way of messing with our confidence.
Wealth often equals perceived authority. It’s easy to start deferring to clients just because they have more money in the bank, a bigger job title, more homes, or a stronger network.
That fear of being “found out” as not polished or “rich enough” can lead to undercharging, over-delivering, or saying yes to everything, forgetting that you DO know better when it comes to the service you provide and the results you promise.
Our own money stories from our childhood and generations of experience don’t just POOF VANISH when we step into client meetings, get great testimonials, get published, or hit our first $100k or $1MM in revenue. In fact, these big milestones more often exacerbate the feelings of imposter syndrome.
There is a saying I love: “Your NET WORTH will never exceed your SELF WORTH.”
And I truly believe a crappy money story will always drag you down until you deal with it.
You need to dispel any money stories that impact your sense of self worth.
The good thing though is that your interior design clients aren’t hiring you because of your money or success. They’re hiring you because they believe you’ll get them the results they’re looking for and there is proof from others that you can.
Remember that the ability to compose a beautiful room is a unique and fairly rare skill. The vast majority of people have no worldly idea how to do it. Your talent, knowledge, and skills are an exceptional commodity. THAT is what establishes your value.
The Mindset Shift: Expertise > Net Worth
Yes, your interior design clients may have multiple homes, a private jet, a full staff, or an entirely different relationship with money.
But they can’t pull together a cohesive design. They don’t know the ins and outs of working with this GC or that architect. They don’t know how to transform a space the way you can.
And they don’t want to!
That’s why they hire you.
You’re the one who can deliver a result they cannot achieve alone. A result that communicates who they are and what they care about. A result they need you for.
And I've seen this from both sides.
As a business owner, I’ve had seasons where my business was more successful than my clients’ businesses. And as a client, I’ve hired interior designers whose businesses weren’t as successful as mine.
And guess what? I didn’t care about their net worth or what car they showed up in.
I cared whether they understood my needs and could deliver a design better than I could have imagined. I looked for designers who provided excellent communication, an intentional and enjoyable process, and clear guidance on what I should expect in terms of experience and investment.
Because, as someone who enjoys and pays for luxury experiences, I expect a great experience from any luxury service provider I hire, ESPECIALLY when it comes to my home.
And your interior design clients feel the same way. They’re not just paying for a sofa or some window treatments. They’re paying for the RIGHT sofa and window treatments that they’ll love forever.
They’re paying for time savings, ease, a lovely process, and beautiful results that go above and beyond what they could have expected. They’re paying for an insurance policy essentially for the way their home will look and feel, for what their home will say about them, and how it will make them feel about themselves.
And that insurance policy is you. 👏
Having YOU as an interior designer will guarantee your client’s home will be amazing and they’ll make all the right choices - choices they wouldn’t have even considered on their own.
How to Level the Playing Field
So how do you be this person for clients, status and wealth aside?
It comes down to two things:
1) Tactical: A SOLID process, knowing your numbers, solid boundaries, and proactive communication.
2) Experiential: Understanding what luxury feels like, even if you’re not living the same lifestyle as your clients..
01 | TACTICAL THINGS TO IMPLEMENT IN YOUR BUSINESS
Set the tone early. Show clients you’ve done this before. Have a buttoned-up process. Use an investment guide. Follow a process for your sales calls. Establish a follow-up process. Use a new client onboarding guide.
Lead the conversation. Be proactive. Answer questions before they’re asked. Anticipate their needs.. Your experience = value!
Know your numbers. Know what it takes to do a project like the ones they see in your portfolio. Never apologize for your fees or process, or feel like you need to explain yourself beyond, “This is how we do business and get the results you see in our portfolio.”
Practice your responses. When a wealthy client pushes back, respond calmly:
“This is the structure that ensures your project runs smoothly.”
“This is how we can guarantee a great experience.”
“This is how we can provide you with flat fee pricing.”
“This is how we ensure quality.”
REMEMBER: Pushback doesn’t always mean they don’t respect you. It more often means they’ve worked with a designer before, they care about their bottom line, their time, and what the experience will be, and they want to be sure you can deliver.
02 | EXPERIENCE LUXURY YOURSELF (WITHOUT SPENDING LIKE YOUR CLIENTS)
As a luxury service provider (yes, that’s you), it’s your job to understand your clients and what they expect. So how do you gain insight into true luxury experiences? How do you get fully tuned in to the luxury mindset?
Go to a luxury hotel lobby or bar and notice how the staff greets you, how the spaces feel, how everything feels.
Order a glass of wine at a Michelin-starred restaurant and pay attention to the service, pacing, and presentation.
Visit high-end boutiques and watch how they package purchases or walk you through the store. Everything is very intentional.
You don’t have to spend like your clients to understand them. You just need to observe, take notes, and weave those quiet touches into how you run your business.
If You Want To Build Up Your Confidence, Start Here:
Know your numbers. Our Pricing & Proposals Workshop shows you how to set data-driven pricing, present fees with confidence, handle objections, and how to write a proposal that builds confidence and makes you look like a pro.
Button up your process. Processes don’t make you stiff. They make you efficient. They give clients confidence and peace of mind. And that is priceless! Our Client Experience Templates are based on what works for design firms of all sizes. ON your way to your first $100k to scaling past $4MM in revenue a year. Reverse engineer the whole thing and finally deliver an experience your luxury clients will love (and deserve).
Our Full Service Contract Template will ensure your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed and will get past the most nitpicky of clients because everything is clearly spelled out. PLUS, it includes two full service sample scopes of work (one for furnishing projects and one for construction projects) so you can get proposals and contracts out to clients within hours, not weeks.
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